Rajya Sabha suspends 19 opposition MPs

Nineteen opposition members of parliament (MPs) were suspended from Rajya Sabha on Tuesday for “unruly behaviour” while protesting against government over inflation in the House.

The suspension came a day after action was taken by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Prakash Birla against four Congress MPs for similar reason for the entire monsoon session ending on August 12.

The 19 suspended Rajya Sabha MPs including seven from Mamata
Banerji’s Trinamul Congress (TMC) will be barred for a week to attend the monsoon session of Parliament, reports said.

“The decision to suspend opposition MPs from Rajya Sabha was taken with a heavy heart. They kept on ignoring the Chairman’s appeal,” said Piyush Goyal of ruling BJP. 

Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several other leaders of the party have been detained by the Delhi Police for protesting near the Parliament House against the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) move to summon party chief Sonia Gandhi.

Senior Congress leaders detained include Deepender S Hooda, Ranjeet Ranjan and K Suresh, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

Rahul and other Congress members held a sit-in protest at Vijay Chowk against the ED and the BJP as Sonia Gandhi was being questioned by the ED about the National Herald money laundering case.

The Delhi Police stopped the Congress leaders as they attempted to march from Parliament House to Rashtrapati Bhavan and held several of them in buses.

The leaders charged the Delhi Police for abusing and imprisoning a number of party members, including women.

The party has been objecting to the ED’s decision to interview Sonia Gandhi for several weeks.

Regarding the arrests and where the detainees were being taken, the Delhi Police declined to comment.

After the suspension, TMC leader Derek, O’Brien told media, “This government has suspended democracy.” 

The House was adjourned for one hour as the suspended MPs continued to protest the action taken against the opposition MPs. 

This is for the first time in several years that action has been taken against so many parliamentarians. In January 2019, the then Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended 45 members of the TDP and AIADMK for disrupting proceedings for days, reports added.